An Analysis of Differences and Communication Patterns in Competitive and Cooperative Decision-Making Groups.

Krueger, Dorothy Lenk

Based on existing theory and research on cooperation and competition and on process studies of group decision making, a two-part study was conducted on the communication patterns in four groups of college students. In the first part of the study groups one and three were induced to behave competitively and groups two and four were induced to behave cooperatively. It was hypothesized that the competitive groups and the cooperative groups would differ in the ways the members perceived their group's level of competition and in their satisfaction with the decision making process and product. It was found that the two groups given competitive inducements had significantly higher competition and lower satisfaction than did the groups given cooperative inducements. The second part of the study examined the patterns of communication unique to two of the groups--those displaying the highest and the lowest levels of competition (groups one and two respectively). The analysis yielded patterns of decision making communication unique to each group: (1) group one's communication was characterized by highly probable sequences of disagreement messages and few probable agreement messages; (2) group two's communication patterns consisted of highly probable sequences of decision development and probable agreement/support messages throughout the group interaction. (FL)